Conclusion: Chronic prenatal stress followed by a second exposure to HeICS in adult offspring exacerbated visceral
hypersensitivity (VHS) greater in female offspring that persisted longer than in male offspring. Chronic prenatal
stress up-regulated BDNF expression in the lumbar-sacral dorsal horn that correlated with the exacerbation of
VHS in female, but not in male offspring by increasing RNA Pol II binding and histone H3 acetylation, and
decreasing histone deacetylase 1 association with the core promoter of BDNF in female offspring.